(Snippets from the frontline)
Advice to new doctors
Learning the art of medicine for 40 years allowed me to accumulate an abundance of clinical experience while being of service to our community.
When bodily function goes awry, I become a physician detective asking questions and listening carefully, doing a physical exam, then using technical tools of evidence-based medicine to eventually make a diagnosis and render treatment.
Some of my hospitalized patients have been yanked from the precipice of death, with the great majority returning home to their families and careers. Every day, I feel the satisfaction of knowing I made a difference in someone’s life.
You new doctors bring into your careers knowledge, sympathy, empathy, and a willingness to serve, but business has taken over medicine. Therefore, you need to listen more carefully, spend as much time as you can, and be mindful of your patient’s personal surroundings including finances, home life, caregivers, and decisions regarding end-of-life care.
At times you have to be their advocate against denials from insurance and drug companies, and hospitals pushing them away from worthy care.
Treat each patient as family, and don’t compromise your ideals.
I hope your first 40 years of service will be as satisfying as mine.
Gene Uzawa Dorio, M.D.
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